Performing Conservative Politics
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 3040539 |
|---|---|
| Authors | E Wagner (0009-0006-8540-2464, University of Nevada, Las Vegas), Edmund G Wagner (University of Nevada, Las Vegas, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2025 |
| Volume | 54 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 278-310 |
| Publication date | 2025-04-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Journal of Contemporary Ethnography (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0891-2416 • E-ISSN: 1552-5414 |
| Publisher | SAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1177/08912416241309853 |
| OpenAlex | W4405946066 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 4 |
| References cited | 43 |
Research on political performance has typically addressed macro-level performances, such as highly visible protests and demonstrations from progressive organizations. Using ethnographic data from various conservative organizations in Southern Nevada, I demonstrate how conservatives perform their ideology with a small-scale, generally like-minded audience. The activists I observed strategically created places filled with conservative symbolism to demonstrate the ideas and practices they welcome and support. They embodied a conservative style through their self-presentation, signaling their political commitments. They perform their ideology through the talk they engage in with others in the political spaces. I pay particular attention to the role of place in ideological performances, detailing how activists strategically create and transform ordinary spaces into conservative places, setting a specific tone, mood, and message for their performances, and enhancing participants' experiences. In these conservative places, activists display and forge their collective identity, demarcate boundaries between themselves and others, and sustain their participation
Aesthetics · Embodied cognition · Epistemology · Ethnography · Identity (music · Ideology · Media studies · Political science · Politics · Presentation (obstetrics · Sociology · Style (visual arts · Visual arts · Law · Qualitative Research Methods and Ethics · Rhetoric and Communication Studies · Social and Cultural Dynamics
Nomads of the present
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Anti-Intellectualism in American Life
Distinction
Collective Identity and Expressive Forms
Saying Meritocracy and Doing Privilege
Civil and uncivil places
The political is personal, expressive, aesthetic, and networked
Social Movement Audiences 1
Identity Theory and Social Identity Theory
The Hinge
The Dramatization of Beliefs, Values, and Allegiances
Collective Identity in Social Movements
Interaction Ritual Chains
Mobilization at the Margins
Small Groups and Culture Creation
Social Movement Continuity
Black Southern Student Sit-in Movement
Demonstrating Power
Trumpism on College Campuses
Performing Revolutionary Populism
Performing Conservative Politics
Who Wears the Maga Hat? Racial Beliefs and Faith in Trump
Neoliberalism and the Far-Right
Doing Gender
On Fieldwork
Tradwives
Ghosted
Doing Scene
Ethnographic Approaches to the Internet and Computer-Mediated Communication
College Republicans and Conservative Social Identity
Talk Is Cheap
Collective Identity and Social Movements
A Space for Place in Sociology
Conservative and Right-Wing Movements
The Contemporary American Conservative Movement
Culture in Interaction
Authentic Subcultural Identities and Social Media
Of yarmulkes and categories
| Unique citing works | 4 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 4 |
| Citation span | 2025 - 2026 (2) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 4 |